posted at 9:25 pm on January 20, 2010 by Allahpundit

Should the FBI have questioned him or the CIA? Should he have been treated as a criminal or an enemy combatant? Should he get a civilian trial or a military tribunal?

Don’t worry. Someone somewhere in the chain of command will figure it out.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair on Wednesday criticized the decision by FBI agents last month to question the Christmas Day airline bombing suspect as a criminal and not interrogate him as a terrorist…

The intelligence chief said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should have been questioned by the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, a special panel established by President Obama.

“We did not invoke the HIG in this case. We should have. Frankly, we were thinking more of overseas people. And, you know … that’s what we will do now. And so we need to make those decisions more carefully,” Mr. Blair told Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee.

Well, okay. I’m sure FBI chief Robert Mueller had his reasons for wanting the feds to do the questioning. Bob?

FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee today and revealed that he was not consulted on the question of whether to handle accused Detroit airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a defendant in the civilian justice system or as an enemy combatant. Abdulmutallab, who was trained by al Qaeda — with whom President Obama says the United States is at war — was charged as a civilian and given Miranda rights and a taxpayer-supplied lawyer. At a Judiciary Committee hearing today, ranking Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions asked Mueller, “Who made the decision that Abdulmutallab was going to be treated as a criminal rather than an enemy belligerent?” The answer: the agents on the scene, with no input from the FBI director…

“So the decision was made by agents on the ground based on some protocol or some policy that they understood?” Sessions asked.

“Based on an ongoing, very fluid situation,” Mueller answered, “in which they are trying to gather the facts and determine what culpability this individual had, but as important as determining the culpability of this individual, what other threats were out there that needed to be addressed?”

You’ll be glad to know that Blair later amended his statement to say that the HIG couldn’t have interrogated Abdulmutallab because, um, it’s not fully operational yet. Evidently he didn’t know that either during his testimony. All of which sounds really bad, until you remember that the guy who could have made an executive decision here was so absurdly unprepared for his own Senate grilling on this subject a few months ago that he couldn’t answer a basic question from Lindsey Graham about whether we’d have to read Bin Laden his Miranda rights if we captured him.

Thank goodness that our military, at least, is treating the threat of jihadism with the seriousness which it deserves. Exit quotation: “The U.S. military’s just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect’s view of his Muslim faith.”

Update: First attempt at a headline wasn’t quite clear so I tweaked it to clarify.

Blowback

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“The U.S. military’s just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect’s view of his Muslim faith.”

Oops. Another slipup. But the paperwork is done. Back to sleep, everyone.

“The U.S. military’s just-released report into the alleged Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various alleged slipups by alleged Army officers but not once mentions alleged shooter Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the alleged killings may have had anything to do with the alleged suspect’s view of his wonderful, peace-loving Muslim faith.”

I am amazed at the lack of stupidity when it comes to these two cases. It’s sad when those who are out to kill us have the same rights as Americans. They should be tried by the military and punishment should fit the crime.

Exit quotation: “The U.S. military’s just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing various slipups by Army officers but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect’s view of his Muslim faith.”

I think we need to set up a blue ribbon panel, and follow all of its recommendations, probably even setting up some sort of over-arching security apparatus, to streamline and coordinate these things. It should be a cabinet-level position. We’ll call it the “Department of Homeland Security.”

They’re too happy just to be “acting,” wearing the suit, looking the part than really doing their f*cking jobs! We’re sitting ducks! It’s worse than one hand not knowing what the other is doing, it’s 9/10/01 all over again..

Somebody better get pissed over this in Washington or in the MSM, because National Security is not some political pinball. Somebody better get their ass handed to them immediately and this needs to be #1 on Obama’s executive agenda. Let Obamacare rot, Congress needs to get people to work.

This is NOT a game here, and this is completely unacceptable. 1 year into Obama’s tenure and WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THE TERRORISTS WE’RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO CATCH ALIVE!

Oooh, Tucker Carlson, AP’s clubbin buddy, just gave Obama a D….didn’t even bat an eye. So did the hottie on the end with cleavage. She might be a Marla, but she has nice cleavage.ohhh, Leeann Tweeden, TnA personality, er TV personality.

I thought Homeland Security was created to have the overhead supervision of CIA/FBI?

Yet Janet “The System Worked” Napolitano was (and still is) clueless. She had no idea who made the decision, and was not consulted. What had she done besides issue the rightwing extremist memo? Why are we paying her salary still?

Clearly, it is very difficult to fill these positions. Maybe we should have a talent show like American Idol and pick out HIG people that way. Every week they could be given a new challenge.

“This week on American Interrogator the contestants will need to get actionable intelligence from our terrorist to avert a man-made disaster at a major sea port. Contestants will be judged on creativity, speed, and how well they avoid giving the Justice Department reason to bring them up on torture charges at some unspecified time in the future.”

You know, much as Susan Collins may have seemed a squish on some votes, she has done a great job in several areas. She is asking the right questions regarding this Homeland Security lapse; she pushed the issue of that TSA candidate to make good on his claims of innocence until he had to withdraw his candidacy; she is sticking with Olympia Snowe in rejecting a public option mandate.

What is pathetic about the Fruit of the Boom bomber’s attempt was the Keystone Kops reaction to it, the usurpation of the FBI to treat this as a criminal matter, Janet Napolitano’s cluelessness and incompetance, and CinC ObaMao’s absolute indifference to the situation even after several days’ lapse.

Insane political correctness by our military: they can’t mention that Hasan’s jihadist slaughter was directly the result of his understanding of what Islam requires of Muslims even after he went to such trouble to personally notify them with a clear slide show!

Hardly a “Religion of peace”, and I don’t see why any “moderate” Muslim in the Military can’t read the Quran the same way and also go suddenly jihad-crazy. But who in responsible positions can discuss the risks, the threat? It seems Obama and Gen. diversity-is-job-1 Casey have discouraged reasonable discussions about this.

Blair also said criteria for adding people to the government’s “no fly” list was too legalistic. He said that in recent years there has been pressure to shrink rather than expand the list because of a cascade of complaints from people getting “hassled” by authorities.

“Why are you searching grandmothers?” was a too-common refrain, he said.
Though the Obama administration has since moved to expand the list in the wake of the terror attempt, Blair said analysts were being told to cast a “very fishy eye” on including more names for “several years before 2008.”

(from Foxnews)

1)Blair and others can’t seem to understand that they need to find a way to shrink the list by making sure grandmothers and babies aren’t on the list. HINT: you need more than names. Your finally adding sex and date of birth. Welcome to 2010.

(I can’t sign up my daughter for a gymnastics class without telling them her name/DOB/sex because they want to know how many girls and boys they have and if I am trying to get a 6 year old in a 10 year old class.)

The Obama White House is so committed to the law-enforcement approach to combating terrorism — the very approach that the bipartisan 9/11 Commission said was a major reason the 9/11 plot went undetected until it was too late — that the possibility of interrogating Abdulmutallab to learn whether he had information that could help prevent another attack was seen as, at best, a secondary consideration and, at worst, wholly irrelevant.

Holder needs to be called before the Congressional committee, for all the good that will do. Might as well call Axelrod, also, since it’s been reported that he sits in on NSC meetings at the White House — he apparently “frames” the image of terrorism, along with every other policy that’s been so wildly successful for this administration.

Responding to a federal subpoena served by the FBI, lawyers for a former Air Force special agent who conducted a private undercover probe of the Council on American-Islamic Relations have turned over thousands of pages of internal documents that allegedly confirm the D.C.-based Muslim group’s role as a front for terrorist groups that seek Islam’s domination over the U.S.

I am honestly surprised there hasn’t been more outrage over yesterday’s testimony. What we learned is essentially that Eric Holder is running the FBI, DHS, DOD, and the intelligence community. Everybody else in the administration was on vacation or otherwise out of the loop.

FBI Director Robert Mueller appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee today and revealed that he was not consulted on the question of whether to handle accused Detroit airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a defendant in the civilian justice system or as an enemy combatant.

It wasn’t just Mueller. Neither he, nor Napolitano, nor Blair – not a one of them were consulted. But I betcha Eric Holder was consulted. Don’t forget that the CIA was demoted and interrogation power was given to the F.B.I. by the Obama Administration under HIG, overseen by the N.S.C.

Here is the federal government failing to do its most basic, Constitutional function. Someone tell me why we shouldn’t just scrap it and start over.

It wasn’t just Mueller. Neither he, nor Napolitano, nor Blair – not a one of them were consulted. But I betcha Eric Holder was consulted. Don’t forget that the CIA was demoted and interrogation power was given to the F.B.I. by the Obama Administration under HIG, overseen by the N.S.C.

What did Holder know and when did he know it?

Buy Danish on January 21, 2010 at 7:50 AM

This is a great Q. Why wasn’t Eric the Red summoned to testify yesterday, along with the rest of the Keystone Cops? btw, McCain did a nice job in this questioning.

This administration is a disaster. I hope we can recover. Maybe when this idiot in the Whitehouse is FINALLY* in the history books we can get a law that keeps our intelligence people safe from political vendettas of in coming administrations.

They said the agents on the ground made the decision huh? They probably decided (after a year of ping pong between moveon.org and the AG deciding if CIA/FBI agents should be prosecuted for talking tough to terrorists) to take the politically correct route to cover their owns arses. After the last year of discussions, I can hardly blame them.

So, when one of these f’ers does finally pop a nuke over Your Favorite City, USA one day, we’ll just call my bad – and move on to the next tee?

This is exactly what we get with no leadership and conflicting leadership from above – from the CIC. Let’s blame the low ranking field agent on scene – not our stated policy to advise jihadis of the Miranda rights. That way, no one can take a direct shot at the President’s policy.

As in the Ft. Hood investigation case, political correctness will only result in more deaths of Americans…

Good question. If Holder won’t answer if he directed the field agents to mirandize Abdulmutallab, then they should call in those field agents and ask them who they talked to before they decided to mirandize undie bomber.

And blaming the field agents….another ice cold shower on our law enforcement/intelligence agents in the field.

And we learned from FBI Director Mueller’s questioning that responsibility for the decision to switch gears from intelligence collection to criminal processing lies with an unnamed high-ranking official at the Department of Justice

. (McCarthy’s article)

I don’t even need 2 guesses to figure out who it is. Put Holder in front of the committee and start interrogating him now. Then demand that Obama fire him.

Hey, I could head that HIG thing. You want talk? They’ll talk. Besides, in these time it would be good to have a government sinecure with good retirement benefits and, purely as a perk, I’d be doing something I enjoy.

This is exactly what we get with no leadership and conflicting leadership from above – from the CIC. Let’s blame the low ranking field agent on scene – not our stated policy to advise jihadis of the Miranda rights. That way, no one can take a direct shot at the President’s policy.

catmman on January 21, 2010 at 9:16 AM

There are very good Law Enforcement agents (my brother.)
But I guarantee SOMEONE ORDERED these guys to go against their instincts to treat them as terrorists.

Based on an ongoing, very fluid situation,” Mueller answered, “in which they are trying to gather the facts …

What a moron FBI director Mueller must be! He was asked on what basis the decision was made and he said this? Fluidity is a basis?!! They wanted to “gather the facts” and so accordingly the FBI agents got the underwear bomber Mirandized and told to shut up?!!